Video monitoring system record long video footage in which significant events may be short and far apart in time. For example, closed-circuit television (CCTV) is used for surveillance in areas that may need monitoring such as banks, casinos, airports, military installations, and convenience stores and records the same location for a long period of time. In industrial plants, CCTV equipment may be used to observe parts of a process from a central control room when, for example, the environment is not suitable for humans.
A problem arises in that the long video files must be played in order to find an event that occurred. It may take a long time for the viewer to play the video file.
A current solution is to use fast forward whilst scanning the video image. This has the drawback that there is a chance that an event will be missed because of the fast playback and there is a limit on how fast the video can be displayed.
Another solution is to use video analytics. However this involves the use of complex and expensive algorithms.